Young people in Millbrook learn new life skills through cooking

Southampton City Council has partnered with CM Foundation to deliver an Urban Cooking Programme for young people in Millbrook

This is one of the initiatives funded by the fourth round of the Home Office Safer Streets Funding, to divert young people away from anti-social behaviour and neighbourhood crimes into meaningful activities.

The Urban Cookery project has been created by CM Foundation in partnership with Street Cooking-John's Kitchen and Educating Individuals Empowering Families (EIEF). The six-month programme spanning from May to November 2023 is free for secondary school aged young people in years 7 to 11.

Fifteen young people have signed up to attend the weekly sessions, where each week, they learn a new recipe or skill ranging from making cheese sauce to assembling sushi. This will help to develop their cookery skills, and in turn, life skills such as confidence building, teamwork, and wellbeing benefits.

Sam Paulton, Manager of CM Foundation said:

“Cooking is a life skill for everyone. Through this programme we’re teaching young people how to work with food, how to cook for themselves and how to budget. We design the sessions based on what is important to them, what they want to learn. It’s great to watch their confidence grow and develop vital skills that will follow them throughout their lives.”

Councillor Matt Renyard, Cabinet Member for a Safer City comments:

“We’re using the Safer Streets Funding to deliver a broad range of activities, from localised work in the West of the city to tackle anti-social behaviour right through to educational projects with children in schools. The Urban Cooking Programme is a fantastic way to help give our young people the best start in life and to learn number of new skills by learning through cooking.”

The cohort for the current Urban Street Cooking programme has now closed, but people can join the waiting list.

CM Foundation are also running holiday club schemes for Southampton City Council’s Holiday Activities & Food (HAF) programme. There are over 3,000 spaces a day across 60 sites this summer, for children eligible for benefit-related free school meals and aged 4-16 years old, all funded by the Department for Education. Find out more about HAF.